MPG tank to tank before was low 19's, now high 21's and if I can keep my foot out of it, over 22.

Whats left:

Aluminum driveshaft

Aero mods

Previously I'd installed a 2nd air dam behind the OEM one. This one was custom made and nothing special, 5" landscape edging and thick banding mounted under the swaybar. I previously had no idea if it did anything or not, I just copied what Ford did with their older F150's. Earlier this year I made a V2.0 of the air dam, made it and mounted it at work. Drove it home and immediately felt like the truck felt "heavier". I set out to data log a route on the hiway that at the time was 18mi one way over varied terrain @ 60mph letting CC do the work. I ran 3 tests, no 2nd airdam, V1.0 & then V2.0. V1.0 proved to show the best result (looked at the calc load values mapped over the test route). I did not do ABA testing on it as its difficult to get traffic conditions good enough to get that testing done.

Saturday I started implementing some of the mods I wanted to throw at it and wanted to get some feedback from the experts here.

Aero mod plan part 1:
Upper front grille block, Took plastic sheet and fit it into the upper grill (2 sides) and zip tied it to the grill from behind. This was in an effort to get the airflow over the hood vs under it. May get a thin sheet of Kydex and mold it to the grill insert so it can be easily attached from the outside.

Wheel well vents, went to home depot and found an attic vent that has 3 sections plus screen behind it. Cut it up and installed them in the back side and upper part of the wheel liner.

Rear spats, followed Chevy's example for rear wheel spats/air dams in front of the rear wheels and made some for the ram. I did not like how the install looked and this version will be temporary.

Impressions: probably a placebo effect but it seems to coast better on "flatter" hills, meaning, where I would loose too much speed before on the same hills, now I can get away with coasting down them at 55~65 mph. Passing semi's, there is no more movement from my truck when passing thru a semi's wake. Seems rock solid now. I can only guess that the flow over the hood is creating a tad bit more downforce.

Aero mod plan part 2:
I want to get a large sheet of kydex and make a partial belly pan under the front cooling stack. Basically from the OEM air dam back to the existing 2nd air dam (would be removed and integrated into the belly pan). My goal here is to control the airflow downwards in an attempt to push it below the axle. Entry angles need to remain good for off roading so a taller front air dam is out. Before I get to this point though I need to understand why V2.0 of the 2nd air dam generated more drag which means I'll have to go back and mod it into V3.0 and retest with the 3 configs like I did the 1st time.

I wanted to attempt a tire air curtain similar to what was done on the ford f150's. I dont have a solid plan for it yet but have some ideas. One of which is to harvest air off the front belly pan via naca duct and route that airflow up to the fender to feed the air curtain. In looking at my wheel/tire placement though I'm not sure this would be effective as they come right out to the edge of the fender.

Cab belly pan, while a full belly pan is ideal, I dont think its gonna be that simple on the ram with all the obsticals under there. I do however have a plan that may improve things a bit under there. round 1 will be to take the garden edging that I have and make a side spliter to keep the airflow from rolling under the cab. I dont think this is gonna be ideal at all but I plan to implement it anyway. I have tubular side steps and the plan is to fill the open area between the step & cab and then create a splitter moving back towards the rear tire. This would probably extend out a very small distance from the cab of the truck, maybe 1~1.5". Under the cab I want to create a snow sled shaped piece that extends from in front of the trans cross-member back towards the fuel cell with a slight downward angle as it extends back. This effort is similar to the front pan where any airflow would get dirrected down under the axle. This would be a left side & right side setup with the exhaust side having thermal inslulation to prevent it from warping.

Rear, one thing stands out right away and its the bumper. Its open and on the very ends it looks to me like a parachute for airflow at the end of the bed. I want to cover this area up to start with but am not sure how yet. One idea I have for back there is to create a short diffuser and place vortex generators within each cell. I figure at least 3 cells on each side of the tow hich. Problem then becomes how to feed those cells with airflow. I'm thinking if there is enough flow off the center belly pan it might be enough to feed those diffuser cells. Why go this route? My thinking is to fill the vacuum back there with redirected air from underneath the truck. Why VG's? why not, its an experiment... if it doesnt do well I pull them off.

The EM research I've done showed the sloped cap (not gonna happen), tall air dam in front (not gonna happen), and long side skirts all the way back to the rear bumper (also not gonna happen). So I'm left with the plan I mentioned above.

Looking for expert input on any of this, pros & cons, been there/done thats etc. I figure this will take months for me to get all figured out and implemented.

The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to steve05ram360 For This Useful Post:

Your 2nd air dam may be ineffective, trapping air under the front of the truck. You may want to build a better air dam dropping down from the bumper, but make it easily removable for off-road shenanigans. No mention of an aero cap, a must for trucks IMO.

A Bonneville style spoiler and half-tonneau are considered 2nd to an aerocap.

Here's my take on an air curtain:

A time attack style diverter to scoop air and throw it sideways. Then a winglet that constitutes a converging duct that redirects the air into a [fraction of an inch] slot the height of the wheelwell. The back edge of the winglet would be matched to the locked wheel and tire, not the fender opening.

Put you tool box at the back of the bed like this:

Works as a spoiler. You can add tumblehome to the sides.

edit:
For comparison, the NASCAR Camping World racers use a ducktail spoiler. Same height as an aerocap truncation, just without the smoothening.

Your 2nd air dam may be ineffective, trapping air under the front of the truck. You may want to build a better air dam dropping down from the bumper, but make it easily removable for off-road shenanigans. No mention of an aero cap, a must for trucks IMO.

My testing with the v1.0, v2.0 & no air dam showed a benefit with the v1.0 version. When I went wider with v2.0, then there was drag and it was SOTP detectable.

Aero caps are not in production from what I can tell... plus, does not fit under the truck

A Bonneville style spoiler and half-tonneau are considered 2nd to an aerocap.

Here's my take on an air curtain:

A time attack style diverter to scoop air and throw it sideways. Then a winglet that constitutes a converging duct that redirects the air into a [fraction of an inch] slot the height of the wheelwell. The back edge of the winglet would be matched to the locked wheel and tire, not the fender opening.

Put you tool box at the back of the bed like this:

Works as a spoiler. You can add tumblehome to the sides.

edit:
For comparison, the NASCAR Camping World racers use a ducktail spoiler. Same height as an aerocap truncation, just without the smoothening.